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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27263689">Witch and Redhood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherryjin7/pseuds/Sherryjin7'>Sherryjin7</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman (Comics), Doctor Who &amp; Related Fandoms, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Practical Magic (1998)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Multiple Crossovers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:54:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,137</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27263689</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherryjin7/pseuds/Sherryjin7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Erin Owens owns a store in Gotham City.<br/>She's a witch but her life appears to have more superise going on when she finds out time distortion happened on herself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eleventh Doctor &amp; Original Female Character(s), Jason Todd/Original Female Character(s), Tenth Doctor &amp; Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Owens Store</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Anyone+who+likes+Jason+Todd">Anyone who likes Jason Todd</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Not native speaker, writing this fanfiction in both Mandarin and English by myself, so if I make any gramma mistakes, please let me know.<br/>Poor writing and hope noone is offended by my character's personal setting.</p>
<p>Erin is Doctor's ward for my personal setting on these characters, more like friend and family</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gotham, she never adores this city.<br/>
High crime rates and dark alleys are dens of iniquity.<br/>
Various shady trades constantly happen at each minute of every day, night only acts as a better cover for crime in this city.<br/>
If you are an outsider who prefers to go out through the night, it means you either need to deal with local criminals, or you're lucky enough to meet the city's featured administrator- vigilantes.<br/>
Erin Owens begs to be excused from any of these.</p><p>If general public by any chances get to know the existence of the magical side, she then needs to cope with MACUSA, the United State magical Congress that being a greater control freak compared with vigilantes.<br/>
It took her great effort, hundreds of galleons and far connection with another Hogwarts alumnus' wife help to gain the business license for her store, she doesn't want it to be shut down by any possible reasons, especially not the violation of No.73, "International Statute of Secrecy."<br/>
The relationship between muggles and wizards are not intensive but still not warm even after three centuries in this country.<br/>
Erin also doesn't have any ambition of becoming the peace ambassador for this--her ancestor Maria was a lucky victim that survived from witch trials.<br/>
When the witch hanging committee found out they could not execute Maria in a "normal" way, they chose to exile her to an island. Aunt Jane once said if this ever happened in Salem，the whole family blood may have ended in the 17th century.</p><p>But the price of surviving is inevitable，such as......</p><p>The wind chime at the door swings to and fro，starting to chime to get Erin's attention. She shuts the "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" and looks to her first customer of today--</p><p>"Do you need divination, sir? "</p><p> </p><p>Jason·Todd，aka red hood，has been watched this new store that not far away from one of his safe houses for days.</p><p>Things began from a ginger hair girl with a poker face walked past him and carrying a shop sign about half her height--the large Owens white letter on the blue sign was extremely conspicuous even at night.<br/>
Of course, if this didn't happen in the dark alleys of nighttime Gotham and the situation was not him dealing with drug dealers，it might be more romantic counting as first sight.<br/>
But the girl did not give a glance, ignored sounds of snarling and conflicts in the alley like nothing happened.<br/>
In Gotham，"crime is none of my business as long as it doesn't happen to me" is common sense. However，Jason still thought things were just a little unusual for that night，he felt as if neither she nor the criminals in the alley were aware of each other’s existence.<br/>
The next day，he saw the familiar shop sign hanging in the nearby street.</p><p> </p><p>The new sign just covered up the name of the original shop, and the owner only symbolically placed two bracelets under the store window with marking 20% off promotion for opening. The ginger hair owner opens her door at exactly 9:30 in the morning and closes it down at 7:30. Curtains are drawn all the time, and she's always listless.<br/>
Jason bets the owner would be gone in one month due to the loss of business.<br/>
But she still has customers in this dump. </p><p>Owens store was frequented by women，and if Jason was not quite sure that customers only buy trinkets and pendants，he almost doubt the store is a new drug trading place.<br/>
Jason certainly checked the merchandise that owner ordered，but the only find were various kinds of crystals and PVC materials. He even broke into the store once to check at night，but nothing unusual could be found. </p><p>Later, he got to know this outsider's main business by a post on a local forum--she sells crystal accessories and groceries. </p><p>Actually, to be more precise, Erin Owens is a purchasing agent.<br/>
She a literal purchasing agent for her poor wizard fellow by reselling magical products to them.<br/>
She also returned to her old business--helping people getting rid of bad romance. </p><p>As stated earlier, her ancestor, Maria Owens, survived from gallows with her magic, but she did not escape the torments of love.<br/>
Maria was pregnant when she was exiled, but her lover never came.<br/>
In a moment of despair, she cast a spell upon herself, that she could never again feel the agony of love. The spell turned into a curse as her pain grew.<br/>
The curse passed through Maria's blood, so every Owens woman owns it. If a woman of her family finds true love, one day she will hear the beetle ticking for her lover's death all day long and she has nothing to do with it.</p><p>Basically, after being abandoned by man, her ancestor gave a curse for whole family women of having the great possibility to become widows. From a witch’s perspective, the curse and its effects have the potential of turning to legend, since both of her aunts remained single for their whole lives.<br/>
After successfully learning her family’s history, Erin also found the way to earn her first money from her blood—— blood mixed with glue and made into ornaments, with one or two basic spells, this would block love or any romantic relationship for a while.<br/>
It's the easiest way for her to make money while being far less risky and costly than selling banned magical products such as love potion. </p><p>The product became popular in women customers since it first launched, and it's even more  popular in Gotham——the place with a high possibility to get themselves into a different weird relationship.<br/>
But today is different，Erin's first customer is a man.</p><p>"I don't have the guts to ask you do that for me. Your divination grade is not easy to forget: Erin Owens got a P. That's big news."</p><p>Ah, an old friend who rarely appears in her store.<br/>
Aaron Connor, one of her few friends back in Hogwarts, but was sadly assigned to the city owns the worst public security in the nation to do his job for the ministry.</p><p>"That was not my fault, I told them it was not wise to just predict or speculate your timeline....destiny, fate could be tricky. "</p><p>Her mind gets interrupted, memory flashes by. Erin frowns and looks back to the book in her hand.<br/>
"What you need is on the second shelf on the left, take it yourself."</p><p>Seeing red hair witch being standoffish, Aaron doesn't tease her anymore and goes straight to the shelf to take the thing professor McGonagall enjoined him.<br/>
However, he only sees a row of Ring Pop, the thing that muggle children obsess with, to wear on their fingers.</p><p>What ？？？？？？</p><p>"What are those? "<br/>
"Something the professor wants."<br/>
"And that's how you treat it？"<br/>
“Easy, it's a disguise, you really need to keep open-minded.”</p><p>Aaron's eyes twitched, he couldn't understand the reason that professor McGonagall chose Erin to be in charge of this.</p><p>"You know how essential that is, do you?"<br/>
"Well, in total of $20 and a bottle of hair growth lotion for you."<br/>
" Erin!?"<br/>
"Stop yelling, my old friend, look at your hairline, hurry back to London and do something with it. If you continue staying here I'm afraid of people will refer you as my uncle by next time."</p><p>"You think I don't want to?! When will they figure out that the real side worthing communication with are the vigilantes but not the damn government in this city？"</p><p>Erin sees Aaron shoves a dozen diamond candy into his bag, scorned and turned to the next page, "They do realize that fact, but no one dares to challenge the underlying rule in this city of sin."</p><p>Before actually facing Gotham, who would have thought the city could be this much chaotic? Magic Congress may never imagine that [rules] for a city could have the least relevance with the government but completely dictated by different parties of the city.</p><p>Some people chose to step forward, get dressed, and use their way to keep this city in order. It worked, yet this deterrent was only a stopgap.</p><p>"Get out of here when everything is down, and hopefully the next time I see you is in London."<br/>
"You too, the auror office would always......"</p><p> </p><p>Young Auror hesitantly looked at her, but he could only see a pair of calm blue eyes——he's quite familiar with that look. He saw her use that several times when she wanted to refuse something, and this time is no different.<br/>
"...... I got it, see you around."</p><p>Chimes jingle and stop, her store returns to silence.<br/>
Erin distressingly laughed out loud, grey mist like magic power spilling out of her palm and dissipating into the air, splendid and marvellous, like magician's trick.</p><p>Erin Owens' body is a sieve that can not control the leak of her own magic power.<br/>
The uncontrollable level of her body's mutation has been exacerbated as she grew up.<br/>
Besides the instability of magic leak, the mutation also brought a time-jump to her.<br/>
Even in Hogwarts, the place is warded off against apparition, did not stop her disappearing at the way to transfiguration Class and appeared at Gryffindor common room in her fourth grade.</p><p>No wizards or witches around her were able to explain the mutation or find a solution with it, but the "teleport" occurred more frequently and more complicated things happened to her that year, which is time-jump.<br/>
For example, after finished exam for her potions class, the next second she found herself appearing in front of headmaster's office at midnight.<br/>
She almost forgot how she survived by the end of that semester, the final week of seven classes seemed like half a month for her.<br/>
Till the end of that semester, she was called to the office by her headmaster, professor Mileva McGonagall because her guardian had sent her a letter by using an owl.<br/>
The only message in the letter was a blue postcard with precise coordinates of a location.</p><p>However, her biggest surprise by then was not the unfathomed coordinates, but the truth that her guardian actually knew how to use an owl to send message.<br/>
Based on Erin experience with her old man, this must be his last way, or he would be happy to see a postman getting rid of the repello muggletum influence and slip the letter into her hands.</p><p>She successfully saw her old man in the red vans on platform nine and three-quarters, and asked him about the postcard. He told her this coordinates was about to become her [anchor]——the only place that could stabilize her situation and keep her in the [correct] time and space.</p><p>"You better not forget to take that postcard with you all the time. Just use the pocket technology and put it in your jacket."<br/>
Erin sighed, "That's extension charm, Doctor."<br/>
"Obvious no different with timelord technology, don't get why you people have a different name...... or remember the coordinates by yourself, ginger girl."</p><p>The man in the blue suit muttered as he pressed the button on the friction contrafibulator. After pulling the handbrake, they landed in a city.</p><p> </p><p>It was the first time she arrived in Gotham, in the summer vacation of her fourth grade.<br/>
The city's crime rate and social climate drove Doctor and her crazy, so the Tardis took them to the 17th century for a trip.<br/>
But they landed in Salem, the town of the witch trials, and almost got herself, a real witch, experienced to be burned.</p><p>When Doctor and she finally managed to escape back to Gotham, they accidentally watched a robbery committed by casual opportunists. It all happened at a small restaurant that not far from her new anchor.</p><p>"You human, are always far beyond my imagination."</p><p>Erin still remembers the look on her old man's face, stunned speechless, similar to the first time he saw the screaming mandrake in her yard.<br/>
But she did think that scene was a little too much for a peaceful nine-hundred-year-old alien who only had a sonic screwdriver and a fourteen-year-old witch who did not allow to use magic out from her school.<br/>
That day was also the first time she realized what kind of environment she's going to face at the anchor.</p><p>She doesn't like this city, but she got her anchor in this place.<br/>
So no matter how much she dislikes it, she has to stay here.<br/>
Opening a grocery store, she hopes that someday her old man in his familiar long trench coat will appear with that blue box and ask her if she wants to go somewhere else.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2. Evocation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The time was barely six-thirty in the evening, but sunset had already fallen on the city.<br/>The sky was gradually tinted with golden red. When darkness came, Erin Owens went out and turned the sign to "Closed." <br/>The magic array outside showed no change and she decided to close the store.</p><p>It always took her a while to close since some magic goods were mixed with ordinary products. Erin usually packed them up into her book during closing——exchanging money is pretty difficult in Gotham and she did not want to take losses for no reason.</p><p>She had to prevent the possibility that battles of vigilantes and gangs happened at the front of her store, or any paranoid stranger noticed her store in the East End. Erin sincerely refused any possible risk that could happen to her in this city, she did want to drag herself into extra trouble without insurance. </p><p> </p><p>And it turned out that being cautious here was not oversensitive at all——someone had entered the store a month ago after closing. <br/>The outdoor monitor worked with catching only stray cats, incense dust sprinkled on the carpet were unchanged, but the protective spell in the store had been loosened.</p><p>Erin hoped that intruder better not be Batman, she got goosebumps even to think about this possibility.</p><p>Drawing out her wand and under the levitation charm, magical items lined up to fall into the open book on the desk.<br/>The Center of the book was hollowed out so she could put all her important items in—— undetectable extension charm was used to the extreme, although it's not legal.</p><p>Thirty minutes later, Erin was still struggling on where to go for tonight's dinner, but she was interrupted by the knock at the front door.</p><p> </p><p>"I'm sorry, but we're already closed."<br/>"Miss Owens?"<br/>"Yes, and you are?"<br/>"Someone entrusted me sending this to you."</p><p> </p><p>The little boy at her front door was obviously local. He was not raggedy, but also not clean. He eyed her warily and showed no intention to loosen his clenched hands.</p><p>She simpered and pulled a crumpled $5 bill out of her pocket as an exchange, cursing F Word under her breath.</p><p>Innocent children did not exist in the east end, it was always better to send these shrewd kids away with a small price. </p><p>“Aparecium”</p><p>The wand grazed slightly rolled parchment, a message with invisible ink was revealed: "800 Wooster Street, 8:30, Emergency! "</p><p> </p><p>Erin recognized the scrawl, it belonged to a blond Auror who shopped at her store for last month,<br/>Aurors were easy to identify since they were always wearing these long, dark brown trench coats. Erin's first reaction had been panic——she thought auror's visiting was for checking her store against any rules or laws. However, that lady auror only looked around, chose a postcard, and asked her to mail it for her.</p><p> </p><p>Erin displayed a few random postcards at the counter to make it actually looked like a grocery store, even one picture of Gotham gargoyle mixed in. She never imagined anyone would actually buy it.</p><p>But she didn't really mind when the blonde gave her a fresh new "Andrew Jackson" and told her to keep the change. Such a generous customer was rare in this area—— it was more like a donation.</p><p>So……a a customer's emergency situation, what would it be? A field job? <br/>Erin could even see more brand new bills drift down in front of her, but she still decided to head back upstairs and pack up all possible tools to use for this.</p><p> </p><p>Her potential client's generosity didn't stop her from muttering——they were in the twenty-first century. Was it hard to text her? Texting was definitely faster and easier compared with finding someone stranger to send her a note. <br/>And she hated to pay advance for things she did not order.</p><p> </p><p>xxxx</p><p>The fireplace at 800 Wooster Street had been abandoned for a while, and the reason it hadn't been removed from the floo network was unclear. <br/>Erin thought it might just be no one wanted to take a trip over here just for floo network. It was not worth it and may create more trouble to get rid of it than having it hidden in this abandoned building.</p><p> </p><p>After the green flames burned and faded, someone was already waiting for her on the other side of the fireplace.</p><p> </p><p>"Laura Miller, Connor told me to find you in case of a special situation."</p><p>Dressed in an Auror dark brown trench coat, Miss Miller studied Erin for a long time and stretched out her right arm towards her. Erin put her hand on it they appeared at the scene of the accident.</p><p> </p><p>804 Wooster Street was a disused building at the east end, since half of the street was in similar condition, it was not that hard to cover up an accident.</p><p>A number of protective charm had obviously been cast to prevent muggles coming. Before Erin could swallow down the discomfort in her stomach, the smell of blood ran into her nose.</p><p>"What's going on?"</p><p>"Our informant said a muggle on Wooster street had weird behavior these days. Sarah Warren, sixteen...... and by the time we got here......better to show you. "</p><p> </p><p>After stepping into the end room, Erin knew why miss Miller stopped talking.</p><p>Holy water was spilled on the floor.<br/>White candles were tilted everywhere and few were still not extinguished.<br/>Walls were full of painted unknown runes.<br/>An unknown evocation ceremony using plenty of blood was one meter across on the floor.<br/>A young, unconscious girl was tied to a chair and a male Auror looked pale and weary.</p><p> </p><p>This is a disaster......Erin just wanted to get out of here quickly.</p><p> </p><p>"...... So you called me for an exorcism? I think you find the wrong person, it's obviously a summoning ritual."</p><p> </p><p>Erin frowned, she was beginning to regret taking up an unknown mess, "Connor didn't tell you guys that? My family is always good at ......"</p><p>"Relationship?"</p><p>The question with sarcasm drilled into her ears —— good, because of these arrogant bastards in the government, Aurors nowadays didn't even know to use cellphones.</p><p> </p><p>Erin had to clench her jaw to suppress her urge to roll her eyes, "Marriage, love, romantic relationship, whatever you call it. Miss miller, you should know my ability since you've been in my store. Obviously, not these. "</p><p> </p><p>She pointed to the blood on the floor: the triangle of Solomon was losing their shape and runes were becoming less clear. <br/>Erin was ready to rummage through her pocket for contact information of some professional acquaintances and leave this damn place.<br/>There was no point to care about the transboundary mess.</p><p> </p><p>"Ghost possession, evil spirits? That's my limit. And for this thing, I suggest you find some professional."</p><p> </p><p>She pulled out two business cards and placed them on the table, looking at the two Aurors squarely in the eye and sincerely suggesting them find someone else.</p><p>"Listen, I'm not joking. Better call Constantine, he's a master of black magic and he probably wouldn't mind giving you a friendly explanation on ……this. If he's busy just try Winchesters, these guys could be a little rough……but they will solve your problem."</p><p> </p><p>At the same moment, Erin looked at Sarah Warren: observing the sign of that poor girl waking up, she cast a stunning spell on her quickly.</p><p>"But the most important thing right now is transferring this lady back to New York; trust me, things will become harder if you're being watched by someone in this city."</p><p>She just said every single word that could help aurors without the chance to get here five-dollar back and she felt very noble.</p><p>She thought so in her heart and became even more righteous, but the good virtue of "doing a good deed every day" ended when she stepped on the splintered door of the room.</p><p> </p><p>"By the way, sir, next time you see some unknown painting on the door, do not rush to use severing charm? Or the wound will not heal no matter how much dittany you use on it until you use holy water clean it up first. "</p><p>Before the ginger hair witch left the room, she turned around and winked at the male Auror,  "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, don't you agree? "</p><p> </p><p>XXX</p><p>What happened next was none of her business. <br/>Her first priority was going back to the fireplace in 800 and go home. Even if she could hide in the darkness with disillusionment charm, she didn't want to challenge Gotham's night.</p><p> </p><p>Besides, her anxiety and irritation never disappeared—— as if being watched and dragged into some conspiracy, similar to the trouble she had when she traveled with her guardian.</p><p> </p><p>She still remembered the last time she'd had such intensive discomfort was the summer of her twelve. She and the Doctor had met a witch in the Middle Ages.</p><p> </p><p>With back turning bent, a shrill voice, wrinkled face, able to fly on a broom, and the ability of naming—— a typical witch you could see in fairy tales.</p><p>Although her true identity was a Carrionite from the Rexel Cluster, Erin thought herself was more of a witch imposter compared with Carrionite.</p><p> </p><p>"Doctor, this is not the end of my race, you shall see us again in the future!"</p><p>The witch screamed and cried out in grimace, attempting of having words turned into the shortest spell to bind the Time Lord, but losing because the target was the Doctor.</p><p>The magic was gone, but the power of the words was enough to intimidate a twelve-year-old witch - she feared that if she were the one whose name was called, she would be haunted by unpredictable karma.</p><p>And now, the two-way mirror in her pocket went hot, more like verifying her bad presentiment.</p><p>"Erin, emergency! emergency!"<br/>"Aaron, you better have some real emergency, I'm tired of hearing that crap."<br/>"The stone is lost! One of the bags you gave me was empty, and the only thing left was all ring pop!"</p><p> </p><p>Hearing this, Erin who feigned calling to cover up the two-way mirror felt her brain empty for a second.</p><p>"But I've used tracking spell on the bag, the thief is not human, just one problem......"<br/>"No...... you don't tell me ......"<br/>"...... is just a sniffer."</p><p>Erin covered her face in frustration.<br/>Great, real emergency came without any reason.<br/>She didn't know which fact is worse, losing the Philosopher's Stone or the sniffer.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Unknown Visitor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Niffer, long-snouted, burrowing creatures native to Britain with a penchant for anything shiny.<br/>
Mr. Newt Scamander said they "usually harmless" in his book, but Erin didn't buy that at all.<br/>
Therefore, she had witnessed a huge mess this little creature made in her fourth grade in Care of Magical Creatures class.<br/>
Erin thought her professor should not expect the combination of teenage age wizards, witches with great caution, and niffers would play according to the plan.</p><p>Aaron had been the first one who grabbed some gold Galleon to attract niffer, but things had turned worse and uncontrollable when the sunlight passed through Helena's sapphire on her index finger.<br/>
In the next few minutes, students' galleon, brooch, earrings——everything shiny in this classroom suffered from niffers' paws, even Erin's Cameo pearl necklace that her mom gave her.<br/>
So she had no idea when an escaping niffer having the whole Gotham city as its "stage", how many Obliviation charm should be cast to not exposing the whole magic world.</p><p>XXX<br/>
“Owen's Store.”<br/>
Luminous green flame burning in the room, the red-hair witch appeared in the store.<br/>
Erin just about to grabbed her wand out, but the alarm of Intruder Charm and the sound of loading gun filled into her ears at the same time.</p><p>A stranger with a big red hood sat on her regular position, and the "Pride and Prejudice" on the shelf now layed open on the counter in front of him.<br/>
It could be more harmonious if he didn't hold a gun and that firearm was not aiming at her head at close range.</p><p>"Sir, we are closed." She obediently raised her hands in the air, trying to move toward the shelf, "Or if you need anything in the store, just take it."</p><p>"Not just magic trick...What are you?"<br/>
"......An owner?"<br/>
Seeing her irrelevant answer, the stranger lost his patience.<br/>
After the gunshot, the bullet dug into the wall next to her ear, the heat of the powder blazing at point-blank range nearly burned her cheek.</p><p>……Wonderful, her unexpected visitor was short-tempered.</p><p>Erin wanted to get her wand out and found herself a shelter, but he asked: "Fine, everyone has a few secrets, second question, do you have anything to do with the jewelry theft in the diamond district? " </p><p>Jewelry theft? This was simply throwing the correct answer directly in her face.</p><p>Erin suddenly refused being deliberately obtuse, her eyes lit up and shot rapid-fire questions at the stranger who was still threatening her.<br/>
"Jewelry theft? How many? Where? When? Did they catch the thief?"</p><p> </p><p>Erin tried to dig up some useful sympathy from her memory.<br/>
hmmm.....How did people usually ask her guardian for help？</p><p>"Sir, would you mind give some help? That theif may bring great trouble to the city. "<br/>
She frowned and attempting to look innocent with a bit of victim look, but when her gaze strayed away she saw scurrying signs of magic on the stranger.<br/>
Wow……Wizard……？With Guns？Could never imagine that.</p><p>The stranger sitting on her chair seemed to have heard some jokes, and his voice dripped sarcasm, "Miss, this city is never lacking of trouble. You got the wrong person, I'm not a meddling vigilante. I'm here to tell you that I want thirty percent if you're involved in the theft."</p><p>dog-eat-dog ？He's definitely not a wizard, or the congress would have already arrested him. But why is her store being watched if he is not vigilante? Does she even look rich?<br/>
Perhaps confirming something from her great facial expression, he went on: "You don't work for Black Mask."<br/>
“Black what？”</p><p>Even in a declarative form, the big redhead across the room was carefully watching her reactions. However, Erin highly doubted what exactly she could make out through this all-encompassing helmet with its obstructed vision.</p><p>"You don't know you're in his area? One block away from your store is his drug trafficking place. "</p><p>"I'm new in town?"</p><p>She never understood the power shifting in Gotham for five years. With new gangs and powers popping up all the time, almost every store around her anchor changed by every summer vacation. </p><p>"Oh.....do you mean the bakery one block away? They make great red velvet……but service is poor……they are cover of drug dealing？？"<br/>
Thought of her addiction to cake and candy, Erin turned pale, basically writing "I ate drug " on her face.<br/>
"……I mean the underground bar next to them."</p><p>Erin and the red hooded man looked at each other—— he is not in line with her idea at all.</p><p>She reeled back from the possibility of misusing drugs, and her mind drifting back to the destructive fact of niffer.<br/>
She just wanted to quickly get this potential source of information in front of her on board. Therefore, it was always easier to change one person's memory compared with the half city, besides, this man's strange signs of magic also gained her attention.</p><p>"The theft kind of related to me because I'm in charge to catch the thief, do you know of any other place besides jewelry stores that own...... precious jewels? Or shiny stones?"</p><p>Sensing this kind of soften his attitude, Erin used her imagination and said, "Such as dirty trading……？Or……I don't know, some riches' vault? "</p><p>The stranger stiffened for a moment and said to her in a cold voice, "You better not trick me."</p><p>Jason Todd found out the owner of Owen's store to be eccentric. <br/>Even after checking the list of goods and finding nothing, he saw her as a grifter. Therefore, there's no reason for a man of divination magic to travel to Gotham's East End and open a shabby, uninspired store just to hide in plain sight.</p><p>The mystery side was not strange for him. Having been resurrected by the Lazarus Pit, he was brought to Ducra for training with the All-Caste. The warrior monks that taught him had unpredictable ages, and they hid in the Himalayan mountains.<br/>But this owner, Erin Owens-the name on the order form-clearly refreshed his knowledge of the mystery side.</p><p>After confirming his willingness to "help out temporarily," the red-haired woman shook out a small wooden stick from her right sleeve, "So can I use my wand now?"</p><p>Her left hand was still raised upward, and her hands were never out of his sight. With an odd analogy, Jason felt like he was being treated like some large beast that lacking trust.</p><p> </p><p>“I'll take that as agreement, Appare vestigium。”<br/>After the spell was cast, the golden powder flew out from her wand was blowing in the air like mist. They met in the air and formed different traces.</p><p>"There's no need to avoid, it's just tracking spell that could reveal and illuminates traces of recent magical activity ......" Owens explained as she crouched on the ground, and started to examine the part on the floor, " You see that? That's your footprint."<br/>Looking at the golden print left by the thick-soled boots, Jason cleared his throat with little concern, "Are you a mage? or sort of master of magic? "<br/>"Master? No, no, no, it's probably not what you think." She reacted extremely strongly to the word and hastily denied it.<br/>"Have you ever read Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or anything like that?"<br/>"......So?"<br/>"So in the story, there are fairy godmother and witches, right? "<br/>"......and?"<br/>"...... Just like witches and fairy godmothers, they can both use magic, but their sources are not the same, so I'm not a mage." she frowned, touching the traces on the floor, and mumbled, "Well, it's a little bit messy over here, there are too many traces."</p><p> </p><p>"Why don't you check the camera? The nearest theft is seven miles away, and you stop here?"</p><p>"Think this as 3-D version CCTV with the magic track, we're not looking for normal clues, so we can't use science now. If there're other wizards or witches want to fool cameras, Confundus Charm will work, but this charm won't miss anything……and got it."</p><p> </p><p>The wand was stuck in the ground and spun counterclockwise, and the golden trajectory no longer intertwined with each other, as if someone had used scissors to cut away unnecessary information-- even Jason's footprints disappeared.<br/>"As for the second question, our first victim is a friend of mine. And he is an au--officer. I could not imagine there's a second place in Gotham he could be this unguarded unless he was still neer my store by then, revelio."</p><p>The translucent figure appeared in front of them, and the man with the handbag left the store without stopping for long.</p><p> </p><p>Owens opened the door to follow the direction of the figure, and right on the terrace steps, the man stopped, pulled out his cell phone, and answered a call.</p><p> </p><p>Jason couldn't see anything wrong with all this, but at the same time, a mole-like animal quickly crawled into the handbag and the man didn't realize a thing. He hung up the phone and turned into the next street.</p><p>His temporary [teammate] didn't make a sound until the magical effect disappeared with the illusion. When Jason thought she was going to be silent forever, the standard British curse suddenly began to slaughter his ears.</p><p>“Bollocks, seriously? A PHONE CALL? A bloody Phone Call? That's all it takes?  ”</p><p> </p><p>She was furious as a roaring lioness, Jason thought, somehow closer to the proper description of a fairy tale witch.</p><p> </p><p>“Miss？”<br/>“I'm sorry, I'm a little bit……angry, but don't worry, we won't be noticed. My store is always covered by spell after closing.”<br/>As she said, the street was perfectly "normal". A block away, a short siren passing by just in time, but always far from her store.</p><p>The red-haired witch put away her wand and extended her right hand to him, "Erin Owens, you may already know my name."</p><p>"...... Red hood. By the way, I saw your friend on the monitor outside Hilsberg's diamond store today."<br/>Through the hood, Jason shook her hand when he saw those blue eyes bursting with urgency and surprise.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Translation is painful……_(:з」∠)_…I finished 10 chapters in Chinese but got stuck in translating my own work in English……</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first crime scene had been cleared. Although for these two people, Jason didn't have much problem with the scene-- things like this happened in Gotham every day; Erin didn't understand her old friend's confusing behavior at all-- Aaron Connor is an excellent Auror, but he didn't notice a thing by that moment.</p><p>However, they both briefly agreed that they should focus more on the potential movements of the thief but not digging the victim's psychological analysis.</p><p> When it came to gathering information about all theft that happened today to make her next guess, Erin decided to lean on her temporary teammate.</p><p> "I think you may want to continue with your magical approach?" Erin heard a bit of sarcasm in his tone for no apparent reason.<br/>
"Magic is some sort of science, and I think we are working together? I tried my way and it's your turn." Erin replied, "Well, just for saving our time but not intention to violate your privacy…… Any signs near your safe house?"</p><p>“We're that close now? ”<br/>
Erin didn't give any reply, but she kept looking at him with that big, blue eyes writing "why" on her face.<br/>
"...... an abandoned flower store and a chain store of SUBWAY."</p><p> "Huh? Caroline's Shop, they're closed down? " Erin straightened her trench coat and reached her arm out, “Ok, I remember there's an alley near that place. If you don't mind, make sure to hold on tight, that'll be much quicker.”<br/>
"……what？"<br/>
"First time may not be easy, but don't let go."<br/>
Her tall teammate didn't move at all, so Erin opted to wrap her arms more directly around him, "Okay, let's get ready to go."</p><p> In the next second, Jason had a better idea of what the witch was talking about - in the darkness as if he had been stuffed into a very small pipe, and his features were squeezed and deformed.<br/>
He felt like he was losing his grip on her arm when the fresh air finally came back into his lungs.</p><p>Erin could feel that he was basically fighting the muscle memory instinct to not kick her away or just shoot her - the red hood gripped her so tightly that he nearly left finger marks on the small of her arm.<br/>
She didn't expect he would have such a strong reaction to the brief near suffocation.</p><p> "Hey, Mate……You alright？Need any Draught of Peace？"<br/>
The initiator of this patted him gently on the back, and Jason realized that Owens' store had disappeared behind them. They had moved through space in just seconds.</p><p>"Next time you are going to mess with magical stuff on me, you'd better give an obvious hint."<br/>
The cold barrel of the high-caliber pistol against Irene's forehead. The threat of force and the language warning spat out through the man's gritted teeth.<br/>
She was threatened, but she could not help her mind wandering at this moment.</p><p>He is weird, Erin thought.<br/>
Those muscles were tense, but the hand holding the gun to her head was steady. It was so steady that she somehow owned a sense of security that he was only threatening her. He would move his hand as long as she agreed to the demands or conditions he needed; and contrary to this, the traces of his magic flowed more clearly on his body. The violent green and black magic had shape in her eyes, and she could almost notice the way they were entwined and dormant under his shadow as his emotions rose and fell.</p><p>WOW, Erin couldn't help but sigh inwardly, that's incredibly pretty.</p><p> "I'm so sorry, never thought Apparation could do this...You sure you don't need Draught of Peace? Even though it's a potion, I'm sure it will help."<br/>Conscience temporarily overcame curiosity about him, the pale blue potion in the test tube fell into her hand after the Summoning Charm.</p><p>  "Just a mouthful, I promise, tastes like lemon flavor sparkling water."<br/>Jason had to admit, when a pretty girl looked at you sincerely and attentively, her words sounded a little more convincing. But considering she is also the cause of his current discomfort situation, that test tube looked riskier.</p><p>  "Okay ...... I'll try first." Probably realizing that magic didn't make a good impression on him for the whole night, Erin decided to try it first for winning trust.</p><p>  "...... No."<br/>Jason snatched the test tube from her hand and simply ripped off his helmet to smother the potion.<br/>The glass container shattered on the floor and was crushed along with his anxiety and tension.  As if they had been instantly packed by someone and briefly thrown out of his body, leaving him only peace.<br/>The effect was immediate like he had a couple of hours of meditation in a few seconds.<br/>It was quick to the point of being a little scary.</p><p> </p><p>  "I didn't peek, you feel better?"<br/>  "...... follow up." </p><p> As they stepped into the safe house, Irene couldn't resist an exclamation of "Wow."<br/>The room was different from the forever-asthmatic alien tech console in her guardian's Tardis, and not the same as her messy potions lab. <br/>There’s couch, coffee table, dining table, bookshelves, and work area with six surveillance monitors looked like a normal home, though the floating ash and white cloth on the furniture indicated they hadn't been used by the occupants for at least three months.<br/>Erin wasn't surprised. Her teammate didn't reveal his eyes and she didn't expect he would just take her to his regular safe house. </p><p> </p><p>Red hood quickly found the security camera footage from outside the jewelry store where Aaron first appeared. By cross-referencing it with the last location he appeared, they were able to deduce the niffer's likely route.</p><p>And they were doing all of these because their first victim, Aaron Conner, was out of reach,</p><p>"Results should come out in a few minutes. "<br/>There was no food at the safe house and Jason found her a bottle of water, but Erin was more interested in the monitor screen, "Wait ...... Is it my delusion or I just saw my front door on the screen."</p><p>"...... You're weird."<br/>After a long moment of silence, he turned his chair to face her.<br/>Erin took that as an explanation for setting up a monitor at her store door.</p><p>He was rational and skeptical with high probability of having detection skills- he was well trained by someone.<br/>Drawing a simple conclusion, she estimated that the stranger who had entered the store last month was also her teammate.</p><p>Erin spread her hands and replied to him in a self-depression tone, "...... Okay okay, I get it, I'm an outsider. I'm under the area of the Black Mask and I did all my business legally. That just made me the weirdest businessman in Gotham. "</p><p>"But you're also very ...... special? Do you know that you have magic in you? I've never seen such a mess."<br/>She suddenly bent closer to stare at him. Even though she couldn't get a glimpse of any facial expressions through his big, red helmet, she remained still, not intending to look away.</p><p>"Noone ever tells you not to pry into other people's secrets?"<br/>Jason's mind went blank for a moment, but he quickly calmed down. <br/>He had always known that he never belongs to the normal range - a normal person wouldn't resurgence. Ducra had said that his root won't be cleaned at all, but he didn't like being seen through some secrets by just a glance.</p><p>"My guardian tried to teach me that, but it didn't help at all because he was more ...... curious."<br/>Jason felt her lean in a little closer-- she looked at him narrowly.</p><p>Kind of hard, Erin thought.<br/>The six-foot tall man was athletic, with no skin exposed except for a small gap between his tactical gloves and his rolled-up sleeves.</p><p>"Emmm ...... this may not be polite, but I swear I have no intention to offend you."</p><p>Before red hood refused or had more questions, she bent her head.<br/>Warm breaths touched his forearm, she even nibbled before her lips left his skin.</p><p>"...... Is this a courtesy of your witches? Or did I just miss something?"<br/>The feel of the licking still lingered on his arm, and Jason's understanding began to catch up with the sense of touch.<br/>He was not a boy, and this level of physical contact could be considered flirting even for aliens. But he did see any sway of emotion in her eyes; instead, she was rigidly like doing some science experiments.<br/>"Well ...... you tasted crumbly."</p><p>"......Pardon?" He wondered if he was hallucinating.</p><p>"You know meat floss? It gets wrapped in mayonnaise and served in bread. The meat floss sticks together but it's still grated, and you taste just like that." <br/>The red-haired woman licked her lower lip thoughtfully with a grimace, "Emmmm, that tastes like mud. You took any mud baths before? "</p><p>Silence and embarrassment spread through the safe house, and no one in the room answered her.</p><p>Erin never thought the question could be this much damaging, she realized the ambiguity and attempted to explain, "Uh, I'm talking about magic, not your personal hygiene ......".</p><p> </p><p>"Before I shoot you，shut up。"</p><p>Erin didn't notice the weakness in his voice and gestured nicely to zipper her mouth. She retreated back to the couch and kept quiet, unaware of all her behaviors were beyond the comprehension of normal people.</p><p>The computer beeped in time, Jason looked at the screen, turned to Erin and said: "Witch, split up."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Erin has some similar habits like the doctor, such as licking things just to know the truth</p>
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